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You are here: Home / Politics / America / Bruce Ohr is One Answer to the Question of When the Intelligence Community Will Leak

Bruce Ohr is One Answer to the Question of When the Intelligence Community Will Leak

by Adam L Silverman|  September 2, 20183:13 pm| 44 Comments

This post is in: America, Domestic Politics, Election 2016, Election 2018, Election 2020, Foreign Affairs, Open Threads, Politics, Popular Culture, Post-racial America, Silverman on Security, Not Normal

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I’m often asked in comments when the Intelligence Community (IC) will leak. My answer is always that the intelligence community, both the US’s and that of our allies and partners, will leak when it is in their strategic interest to do so. The targeted leaks in early 2017 about Attorney General Sessions phone calls and meetings with Ambassador Kislyak during the 2016 election, as well as about his problems with filling out his SF86 truthfully under penalty of perjury as it says on the form right before you sign it, were both these types of strategic leaks. They were intended to put Attorney General Sessions and his people on notice that if he messed up the counterintelligence investigation into the Russian active measures and cyberwarfare campaign against the United States, both of which – the investigation and the Russian active measures and cyberwarfare campaign – are still on going, then the Intelligence Community would leak additional damaging information about him.

NEW: BRUCE OHR worked w/ @FBI on a secret program to flip Russian oligarchs, including OLEG DERIPASKA.
Ohr once wrote that Deripaska was "almost ready to talk to US re: $ MANAFORT stole.” He also urged an intermediary to get Deripaska "to give up Manafort" https://t.co/68lvGfhVlh

— Kenneth P. Vogel (@kenvogel) September 1, 2018

Yesterday The NY Times reported about what Bruce Ohr was really doing at the FBI and why he was really in contact with Christopher Steele. This reporting is built around anonymous officials providing the information to counter the narrative being leaked from the GOP House Caucus’s side of the Intelligence and Oversight Committees, as well as pushed by the President and his supporters on social media.

The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss an initiative that remains classified. Most expressed deep discomfort, saying they feared that in revealing the attempts to cultivate Mr. Deripaska and other oligarchs they were undermining American national security and strengthening the grip that Mr. Putin holds over those who surround him.

But they also said they did not want Mr. Trump and his allies to use the program’s secrecy as a screen with which they could cherry-pick facts and present them, sheared of context, to undermine the special counsel’s investigation. That, too, they said they feared, would damage American security.

In short, the Intelligence Community strategically leaked because it was in its interests to do so.

The NY Times reports, based on these anonymous officials, that Ohr was working with Steele to try to flip Oleg Deripaska, known as Putin’s Oligarch (emphasis mine).

Between 2014 and 2016, the F.B.I. and the Justice Department unsuccessfully tried to turn Mr. Deripaska into an informant. They signaled that they might provide help with his trouble in getting visas for the United States or even explore other steps to address his legal problems. In exchange, they were hoping for information on Russian organized crime and, later, on possible Russian aid to President Trump’s 2016 campaign, according to current and former officials and associates of Mr. Deripaska.

In one dramatic encounter, F.B.I. agents appeared unannounced and uninvited at a home Mr. Deripaska maintains in New York and pressed him on whether Paul Manafort, a former business partner of his who went on to become chairman of Mr. Trump’s campaign, had served as a link between the campaign and the Kremlin.

The attempt to flip Mr. Deripaska was part of a broader, clandestine American effort to gauge the possibility of gaining cooperation from roughly a half-dozen of Russia’s richest men, nearly all of whom, like Mr. Deripaska, depend on President Vladimir V. Putin to maintain their wealth, the officials said.

Two of the players in the effort were Bruce G. Ohr, the Justice Department official who has recently become a target of attacks by Mr. Trump, and Christopher Steele, the former British spy who compiled a dossier of purported links between the Trump campaign and Russia.

Mr. Steele sought to aid the effort to engage Mr. Deripaska, and he noted in an email to Mr. Ohr in February 2016 that the Russian had received a visa to travel to the United States. In the email, Mr. Steele said his company had compiled and circulated “sensitive” research suggesting that Mr. Deripaska and other oligarchs were under pressure from the Kremlin to toe the Russian government line, leading Mr. Steele to conclude that Mr. Deripaska was not the “tool” of Mr. Putin alleged by the United States government.

The timeline sketched out by Mr. Ohr shows contacts stretching back to when Mr. Ohr first met Mr. Steele in 2007. It also shows what officials said was the first date on which the two discussed cultivating Mr. Deripaska: a meeting in Washington on Nov. 21, 2014, roughly seven months before Mr. Trump announced that he was running for president.

Ohr’s, Steele’s, and the FBI’s attempts ultimately came to naught, which is not surprising as Deripaska refused to give up Putin, which, as we know, would have been like volunteering to be assassinated.

The systematic effort to win the cooperation of the oligarchs, which has not previously been revealed, does not appear to have scored any successes. And in Mr. Deripaska’s case, he told the American investigators that he disagreed with their theories about Russian organized crime and Kremlin collusion in the campaign, a person familiar with the exchanges said. The person added that Mr. Deripaska even notified the Kremlin about the American efforts to cultivate him.

This is what a strategic leak from the Intelligence Community looks like.

In particular, the supplemental info demonstrates that Ohr and the FBI had been using Steele as a conduit to try and co-opt Deripaska. That would have been a huge “get” if they had pulled it off, not only for his info on Manafort but for what he could provide about Putin.

— Bradley P. Moss (@BradMossEsq) September 1, 2018

puff piece to shore up the Russia probe, the article notes that Deripaska rejected as ridiculous the assertion Manafort served as a conduit between the campaign and the Kremlin. I don’t buy that denial, personally, but that’s what he told the FBI. /end

— Bradley P. Moss (@BradMossEsq) September 1, 2018

Stay covert!

Open thread.

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Previous Post: « Manafort? Never Heard of Him.
Next Post: Republican Misinformation On Bruce Ohr »

Reader Interactions

44Comments

  1. 1.

    Cheryl Rofer

    September 2, 2018 at 3:19 pm

    Ah, Adam, you beat me to it! I was going to emphasize the misinformation aspect of it, though, so perhaps I’ll write that.

    THIS IS PROBABLY THE MOST IMPORTANT STORY THIS WEEK OR LAST. MAYBE IN MONTHS.

  2. 2.

    Adam L Silverman

    September 2, 2018 at 3:20 pm

    @Cheryl Rofer: Feel free. The more the merrier. This is also an important story:
    https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/02/us/politics/maria-butina-russian-spy.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

  3. 3.

    AnonPhenom

    September 2, 2018 at 3:23 pm

    Just spitballing here…So, in 2020 when the democrats have taken back both houses of congress and the White House I say the first thing we do is place a mandatory retirement age of 70 on SCOTUS justices.

  4. 4.

    Corner Stone

    September 2, 2018 at 3:25 pm

    So, is the IC trying to get Deripaska killed, or scare him into our protective arms?

  5. 5.

    Cheryl Rofer

    September 2, 2018 at 3:27 pm

    @Adam L Silverman: I agree that Butina is much more important than we’ve heard so far. I think she may be the key to why so many Republican politicians are so silent. Remember Paul Ryan’s joke about people getting paid off by Russians? Har har har

    I’m waiting for more to emerge about Butina, though. The connections between her and the NRA are quite clear. The connections between the NRA and the Republican Party in this respect still need to be filled in.

  6. 6.

    Amir Khalid

    September 2, 2018 at 3:27 pm

    I haz a puzzled.

    They were intended to put Attorney General Sessions and his people on notice that if he messed up the counterintelligence investigation into the Russian active measures and cyberwarfare campaign against the United States, both of which – the investigation and the Russian active measures and cyberwarfare campaign – are still on going.

    You’ve got your nice, complicated “if” clause present and accounted for. But now you need a “then” clause to make the thought complete. I searched the remainder of the post and I’m not sure that you did include it.

  7. 7.

    Sandia Blanca

    September 2, 2018 at 3:32 pm

    @Amir Khalid: I noticed that too–also, just before that, “where both these types of strategic leaks”–think the “where” is supposed to be “were.”

  8. 8.

    Cheryl Rofer

    September 2, 2018 at 3:32 pm

    @Corner Stone: I suspect they’d say that’s up to Deripaska, isn’t it?

  9. 9.

    Amir Khalid

    September 2, 2018 at 3:34 pm

    @AnonPhenom:
    They can only get going on that when they take office in January 2021.

  10. 10.

    debbie

    September 2, 2018 at 3:40 pm

    @Amir Khalid: @Amir Khalid:

    Isn’t the “then” that they’ll release very compromising information about him?

  11. 11.

    Repatriated

    September 2, 2018 at 3:45 pm

    @debbie: Or opt to prosecute the violations already mentioned, potentially adding a conspiracy charge or two for good measure.

  12. 12.

    Amir Khalid

    September 2, 2018 at 3:46 pm

    @debbie:
    So one would expect, but Adam didn’t state that outright so we really can’t be certain. He could easily have some other, completely unexpected “then” scenario to lay on us.

  13. 13.

    Repatriated

    September 2, 2018 at 3:47 pm

    @Repatriated: … and obstruction while they’re at it.

    Restoration of the edit function would be nice. Not critical, mind you, but nice.

  14. 14.

    feebog

    September 2, 2018 at 3:55 pm

    This explains why Steele went to the FBI with the dossier information. Sort of a holy cats, everything we have been discussing is true.

  15. 15.

    tobie

    September 2, 2018 at 3:57 pm

    I would love a timeline of which media outlets or personalities first started targeting Bruce Ohr. He’s not exactly a household name. Was it Hannity? or a right-wing think tank? I know the far-right media universe has been trying to discredit Ohr for months. Someone must have told them to bang this drum, and the order comes from either the White House or the Kremlin.

  16. 16.

    Major Major Major Major

    September 2, 2018 at 3:59 pm

    Thanks as always for sharing your expertise.

  17. 17.

    Adam L Silverman

    September 2, 2018 at 4:01 pm

    @Amir Khalid: @Sandia Blanca: Sorry about that. I had to step away while drafting that sentence and this part got lost as a result, I’ve updated it up top:

    then the Intelligence Community would leak additional damaging information about him

  18. 18.

    Adam L Silverman

    September 2, 2018 at 4:05 pm

    @tobie: Started on social media with Bongino, Fitton, Sara Carter and her mentor John Solomon, the Breitbart and Federalist crowds, Byron York. From there it made its way to members of Congress and to Fox News – Hannity, Piro, Carlson (largely because they book Bongino and Fitton and Carter)- and talk radio. It then made it to the President who reemphasized it, as well as his defenders in the House GOP Caucus who started providing either fabricated or selected leaks. From there it was forced, by sheer muscling, into the mainstream reporting.

  19. 19.

    The Dangerman

    September 2, 2018 at 4:18 pm

    Fascinating how FOX has concentrated the heavy artillery fire on someone who would be one of Putin’s biggest enemies. Hope Ohr has security from the RW nuts. I assume Putin wouldn’t have the craziness to kill an American FIB official but YMMV.

  20. 20.

    Gravenstone

    September 2, 2018 at 4:24 pm

    @Corner Stone: If Deripaska told Putin at the time about attempts to recruit him, I don’t know why he’d be in jeopardy now about it becoming public.

  21. 21.

    rikyrah

    September 2, 2018 at 4:26 pm

    I had only read transcripts of Meghan McCain ‘s eulogy. I hadn’t seen video until watching my DVR of AM Joy. The video was quite striking. And, Senator Pittypat foisting Jarvanka on them? Her rage was palpable. That wasn’t grief speaking..it was pure rage.

  22. 22.

    Corner Stone

    September 2, 2018 at 4:27 pm

    @Gravenstone: I may be mistaken but I don’t find Vladdy to be the type of man who is too trusting.

  23. 23.

    Cermet

    September 2, 2018 at 4:27 pm

    @The Dangerman:I’d think not. That would likely be answered with retaliation and Putin is an ass wipe but not stupid like the orange fart cloud

  24. 24.

    JPL

    September 2, 2018 at 4:32 pm

    @rikyrah: What I noticed was her sobs were about personal stories, and her rage was expressed while talking about greatness.

  25. 25.

    zhena gogolia

    September 2, 2018 at 4:32 pm

    @rikyrah:

    When I heard that it was Graham who invited Ivanka and Jared, I re-evaluated Meghan’s eulogy and realized that was what it was. Her anger was directed at them personally.

  26. 26.

    rikyrah

    September 2, 2018 at 4:44 pm

    @Cheryl Rofer:
    Please post more..

  27. 27.

    rikyrah

    September 2, 2018 at 4:45 pm

    @Cheryl Rofer:
    Yep…Spy Girl…is a big story

  28. 28.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    September 2, 2018 at 4:50 pm

    @AnonPhenom: Since life term appoints to the bench are part of Article III, you’d need more than Congress and the White House, you’d need 3/4 of the states.

  29. 29.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    September 2, 2018 at 4:56 pm

    @Cheryl Rofer:

    Remember Paul Ryan’s joke about people getting paid off by Russians? Har har har

    That was Kevin McCarthy’s joke, Ryan laughed and said we need to keep that in ‘the family’.

  30. 30.

    Cheryl Rofer

    September 2, 2018 at 4:56 pm

    @rikyrah: Done!

  31. 31.

    debbie

    September 2, 2018 at 5:07 pm

    @zhena gogolia:

    I’d like her to publicly denounce the false friendship of Lindsey Graham. There must be some sort of Biblical invective that would apply.

  32. 32.

    Hitlesswonder

    September 2, 2018 at 5:17 pm

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: and he wasn’t joking…and neither was Ryan…

  33. 33.

    Calouste

    September 2, 2018 at 5:18 pm

    @Corner Stone: From Putin’s perspective, just the fact that the FBI though it was worth the effort trying to flip him means that Deripaska is a weak point.

  34. 34.

    H.E.Wolf

    September 2, 2018 at 5:26 pm

    @?BillinGlendaleCA:
    Furthermore, AnonPhenom’s suggestion would put female Supreme Court Justices at a disadvantage.

    Women’s career advancement in most professions, in general, moves more slowly and takes longer than for men who are equally (or less-) qualified… so in the AnonPhenom system, women would be likely to serve shorter terms on the Supreme Court bench than would men.

  35. 35.

    Yarrow

    September 2, 2018 at 5:28 pm

    @debbie: I said in a previous thread that he just looked broken at the funeral yesterday. Walked up to the pulpit to do his scripture reading with his shoulders hunched over and his head hanging down and fled the instant he said his last word. Something wasn’t right there.

  36. 36.

    debbie

    September 2, 2018 at 5:44 pm

    @Yarrow:

    Good. The guilt eats at him already.

  37. 37.

    Uncle Cosmo

    September 2, 2018 at 5:48 pm

    @Yarrow: Whenever I think of that cracker Graham these days I recall Senator Pat Geary in Godfather II. Although my money’d be on “dead boy.” Miz Linseed acts like someone who’s just been shown the evidence that would put him away for the rest of his unnatural life.

  38. 38.

    Suzanne

    September 2, 2018 at 6:31 pm

    This is mind-blowing.

    I so, so, so hope that all of this will be revealed at some point.

    At that point, we will still need to figure out what to do with the sTrumpets, who truly do not care about anything other than having their avatar in the White House so they can own/humiliate the intellectual liberal coastal elites they hate so much. Anyone have any ideas on that one?

  39. 39.

    JGabriel

    September 2, 2018 at 6:55 pm

    NYTimes via Adam Silverman @ Top:

    … Mr. Deripaska even notified the Kremlin about the American efforts to cultivate him.

    Which makes Deripaska more loyal to Russia than everyone who worked on the Trump was to America, since none of them notified the US gov’t that Russia was trying to cultivate them.

  40. 40.

    JGabriel

    September 2, 2018 at 7:02 pm

    NYTimes via Adam Silverman @ Top:

    … Mr. Deripaska even notified the Kremlin about the American efforts to cultivate him.

    Which makes Deripaska more loyal to Russia than everyone who worked on the Trump campaign was to America, since none of them notified the US gov’t that Russia was trying to cultivate them.

    Really missing that editing button.

  41. 41.

    Ken

    September 2, 2018 at 7:35 pm

    @debbie: I think you mean “Biblical injunction”, but “Biblical invective” likely captures her feelings.

  42. 42.

    nasruddin

    September 2, 2018 at 10:14 pm

    @JGabriel:
    Hmm. I wonder if they’re trying to have Deripaska test his 9th floor window flying skills with this leak.

  43. 43.

    Chetan Murthy

    September 2, 2018 at 10:20 pm

    @nasruddin: Hmm. I wonder if they’re trying to have Deripaska test his 9th floor window flying skills with this leak.

    From your lips to God’s ear.

  44. 44.

    Chetan Murthy

    September 2, 2018 at 10:33 pm

    @Chetan Murthy: Argh. Well, that was an excellent use of tags. I’ma try again:

    Hmm. I wonder if they’re trying to have Deripaska test his 9th floor window flying skills with this leak.

    From your lips to God’s ear.

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